Dr Cecilia Zuniga-Montanez

Dr Cecilia Zuniga-Montanez

Postdoctoral Researcher

University of Sheffield

University of Leeds

Biography

I am a Research Associate at the University of Sheffield, UK. I am currently working on the ICICLES project: a three-year longitudinal project exploring the impact of the pandemic on children’s language, educational and socioemotional skills (previously based at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research). I have previously worked on various projects investigating typical and atypical language development in childhood at the University of Leeds and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. My areas of interest include infant and child language and cognitive development, language delays and vocabulary interventions.

Interests
  • Infant and child language development
  • Late talkers
  • Children born preterm
  • Vocabulary interventions
  • Developmental psychology
Education
  • PhD in Psychology, 2020

    University of Birmingham, UK

  • MSc in Developmental Disorders, 2014

    Lancaster University, UK

  • Bachelor in Psychology, 2012

    Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Research Associate
University of Sheffield
Jun 2023 – Present Sheffield, UK
Research Associate working on the ICICLES project which explores the impact of the pandemic on children’s language, educational and socioemotional skills. Previously based at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).
 
 
 
 
 
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Leeds
Apr 2022 – Sep 2024 Leeds, UK
Postdoctoral Researcher
 
 
 
 
 
Postdoctoral Research Associate
National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)
Oct 2021 – May 2023 London, UK
Postdoctoral Research Associate working on the ICICLES project which explores the impact of the pandemic on children’s language, educational and socioemotional skills.
 
 
 
 
 
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Leeds
Mar 2021 – Sep 2021 Leeds, UK
Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leeds where I worked with Dr Cat Davies on the impact phase of the project Children Learning Adjectives.
 
 
 
 
 
Teaching Assistant
University of Birmingham
Feb 2018 – Feb 2020 Birmingham, UK

Teaching assistant in the following modules:

  • Multisensory Development in Infancy and Childhood
  • Social Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood
  • Cognition in Infants and Children
 
 
 
 
 
Coordinator of the Psycholinguistic Group
University of Birmingham
Nov 2017 – Jul 2019 Birmingham, UK

Responsibilities included:

  • Coordinating lab meetings
  • Organising presentations of research conducted by staff and students
  • Organising discussion sessions
 
 
 
 
 
Preschool teacher
SPLENDI Preschool
Aug 2015 – Jul 2016 Mexico
  • Preschool teacher for children between 3 to 4 years of age.
  • English teacher for children between 3 to 5 years of age.
 
 
 
 
 
Special Needs Support Worker
Private practice
Mar 2015 – Jul 2016 Mexico
Support for children diagnosed with language disorders, learning disabilities and developmental disorders.
 
 
 
 
 
Special Needs Lead Worker
CETI Creciendo Juntos
Aug 2012 – Jun 2013 Mexico
Special Needs Lead Worker at mainstream and special needs schools supporting children diagnosed with ASD to develop academic, social and communication skills that could help them be more independent.

Publications

Journal Articles

Zuniga-Montanez, C., Lisauskaite, E., Hutchinson, J., Fricke, S. & Bowyer-Crane, C. (submited). Factors Shaping Children’s Language Skills in the First Year Post-Pandemic. Preprint link coming soon.

Zuniga-Montanez, C., Lisauskaite, E., Hutchinson, J., Fricke, S. & Bowyer-Crane, C. (under review). Risk and Protective Factors Affecting Children’s Socioemotional Skills in the First Year Post-Pandemic. Preprint available at https://osf.io/preprints/osf/jrvhq

Zuniga-Montanez, C, Davies, C., Ligoxygakis, L., Kascelan, D. & Gonzalez-Gomez, N. (under review). How did COVID-19 affect young children’s language environment and language development? A scoping review. Preprint available at https://osf.io/sdcf3

Zuniga-Montanez, C., Fricke, S., Lisauskaite, E., Hutchinson, J., & Bowyer-Crane, C. (under review). ‘Making sure that people are in a good place is draining, and nobody does that for me’: The pandemic and its ongoing impact on teachers and headteachers. Preprint available at https://osf.io/gfsnq

Zuniga-Montanez, C. & Krott, A. (2024). Late Talkers can generalise trained labels by object shape similarities, but not unfamiliar labels. Journal of Child Language. 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000924000163

Davies, C., Ebbels, S., Nicoll, H., Syrett, K., White, S., Zuniga-Montanez,C. (2022) Supporting adjective learning by children with Developmental Language Disorder:Enhancing metalinguistic approaches. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders,1–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12792

Davies, C., Syrett, K., Taylor, L., Wilkes, S. & Zuniga-Montanez, C. (2022). Supporting Adjective Learning Across the Curriculum by 5-7 year-olds: Insights from Psychological Research. Language and Linguistic Compass, 16(11). https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12476

Zuniga-Montanez, C., Kita, S., Aussems, S., & Krott, A. (2021). Beyond the Shape of Things: Infants Can Be Taught to Generalize Nouns by Objects’ Functions. Psychological Science, 32(7), 1073–1085. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621993107

Reports

Kitson, S., Runge, J., Stokes, L., Rostron, J., Aleynikova, E., Boshoff, J., Da Silva Marioni, L., Harvey, M., Stockland, K., Zuniga-Montanez, C. & Manzoni, C. (2023), Domestic Abuse and Schools: Evidence from the Supervision for Designated Safeguarding Leads Evaluation. What Works for Children’s Social Care. https://whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/supervising-designated-safeguarding-leads-dsls/

Stokes, L., Runge, J., Rostron, J., Dorsett, R., Boshoff, J., Da Silva Marioni, L., Zuniga-Montanez, C., Harvey, M., Stockland, K., Aleynikova, E., & Manzoni, C. (2023). Supervising Designated Safeguarding Leads in Primary Schools. What Works for Children’s Social Care. https://whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/supervising-designated-safeguarding-leads-dsls/

Stokes, L., Runge, J., Aleynikova, K., Rostron, J., Da Silva Marioni, L, Boshoff, J., Harvey, M., Stockland,K., Zuniga-Montanez, C. & Manzoni, C. (2023) Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL) group supervision in secondary schools: Evaluation report. What Works for Children’s Social Care. https://whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/supervising-designated-safeguarding-leads-dsls/

Stokes, L., Runge, J., Stockland,K., Dorsett, R., Boshoff, J., Da Silva Marioni, L., Harvey, M., Aleynikova, K., Boshoff, J., Zuniga-Montanez, C. & Manzoni, C. (2023). Supervision of Designated Safeguarding Leads in Schools: Focus on Child Sexual Abuse. What Works for Children’s Social Care. https://whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/supervising-designated-safeguarding-leads-dsls/

Stokes, L., Runge, J., Rostron, J., Dorsett, R., Da Silva Marioni, L., Boshoff, J., Manzoni, C., Aleynikova, K., Harvey, M., Stockland,K., & Zuniga-Montanez, C. (2023) . Supervision of Designated Safeguarding Leads: Great Manchester Combined Authority. What Works for Children’s Social Care. https://whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/supervising-designated-safeguarding-leads-dsls/

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